Pulled Apart By Horses – Tough Love

Pulled Apart By Horses - Tough Love

By Dannii Leivers

“Slow your breathing! You haven’t got balls!” shrieks Pulled Apart By Horses’ front man Tom Hudson on the first line of Tough Love opener ‘V.E.N.O.M’. And bang, just like that we find ourselves recatapulted into this loony Leeds lot’s chaotic, bloodied and slightly sordid world. Damn it feels good to be back.

The band’s 2010 debut was a brutal, havoc-wreaking exercise in party hardcore, as doused in goofy charm (typical lyric “I’ll make you dance with my balls on fire”) and pop choruses as it was in bludgeoning metal and serrated guitars. And now, in a time where articles heralding the death of guitar music appear on a daily basis, the band seem to have pulled off a coup by slotting their annihilated asses in amongst the likes of Rihanna and Pit Bull on the Radio One play list. … Continue Reading

Rihanna – Talk That Talk

Rihanna - Talk That Talk

By Dannii Leivers

So another year, another Rihanna album. And with six albums in almost as many years into her career, is there any other celebrity on Earth as terrified of obsolescence as Robyn Fenty? Do her label think that if she doesn’t release something every year she’ll disappear?

The ridiculous truth is Rihanna is the most ubiquitous of any of the ‘Big Four’ pop stars: Beyonce, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. In the other eleven months of the year she’s not releasing a record she’s in our faces through constant appearances on other people’s records, headlining festivals, on car adverts, on the telly in her knickers. But today’s pop world is a fickle beast – something Ri-Ri’s peeps over at Def Jam seem well aware of – hence their hell-bent determination to ignore the age-old phrase quality over quantity in favour of almost bullying omnipresence. … Continue Reading

&U&I – Light Bearer

&U&I - Light Bearer

By Dannii Leivers

Last year’s Blakfish split seemed to come as a shock for the band more than anyone else. Ten years into their career and midway through the biggest gig of their lives – a support slot on Biffy Clyro’s European tour – they were understandably gutted when singer Sam Manville announced his sudden and immediate departure. And a subsequent bitter statement from the remaining members, Thom, Rich and Wiz, made it clear that things were ending on pretty acrimonious terms.

So &U&I were born out of anger, but if anything, Blakfish’s implosion gave the trio all the ‘fuck you’ momentum they would need to power through their debut with devastating force. In truth Light Bearer finds them in familiar territory. Messy and aggressive, it’s perhaps less a progression, more a continuation of their previous band’s math-punk-hardcore fusion. And uncompromising and hard hitting, bile spits from its every orifice. … Continue Reading

Florence + The Machine – Ceremonials

Florence And The Machine - Ceremonials

By Dannii Leivers

Pressing play on Florence and the Machine’s second album Ceremonials is like entering a high ceilinged cathedral where, bathed in celestial light, Florence Welch addresses her congregation, arms aloft while a full scale choir, harps, bells, guitars and strings make one holy hell of a heavenly racket behind her. In short – it’s absolutely massive.

If her 2009 debut Lungs disappointed in any way it was where superfluous polish literally flattened the lush-enough-already likes of ‘Kiss With A Fist’ and ‘You Got The Love’. But this time Flo’s intended these songs to sound like towering pillars of shine and sheen from the off. … Continue Reading

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

By Dannii Leivers

Let’s not kid ourselves, we all knew what Noel Gallagher’s solo album was going to sound like before we pressed play, before we heard first single ‘The Death Of You And Me’ , perhaps even before the bloody thing was recorded.  After all, go back and read any Oasis review since Be Here Now – where all the cocaine, guitar layers and three minute intros in the world couldn’t hide the fact that the band at that point in their career had essentially made the same album three times. And even now while having a pre-emptive look at the track listing for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, the presence of his former band seems to pervade. ‘I Wanna Live In A Dream In My (Record Machine)’ was one of the tracks that never made it onto Dig Out Your Soul, while ‘Stop the Clocks’ was written way back in 2001 and recorded for Don’t Believe the Truth. Their inclusion is strange; after all, shouldn’t this be Noel’s big foray away from the familiarity of yore?  … Continue Reading

Spectrals – Bad Penny

Spectrals - Bad Penny

This writer first became acquainted with Spectrals after stumbling across last years’ 7” single split (with London’s Fair Ohs) and falling spectacularly in love with the woozy haze of ‘Keep Your Magic Out of My House’. A few months later, the one- man band that is Yorkshire lad Louis Jones, released his EP Extended Play, a collection of tracks that showed he was an artist already expertly accomplished in his craft (and clearly one unable to stop his own creative outpour given the amount of songs already available on the Internet). Fast forward another year on then, and this late in the day it seems almost odd to be talking about the prospect of Spectrals’ debut proper. … Continue Reading

Twin Sister – In Heaven

Twin Sister - In Heaven

By Dannii Leivers

In a year that’s seen Domino Records put out smooth, dream-drenched grooves from the likes of Blood Orange and Wild Beasts in the last few months, the debut proper from Twin Sister simply seems like the next logical step in the sequence. The Brooklyn quintet’s debut album, In Heaven, is a gauzy, pretty work, awash with starry melodies and woozy, honey-milk harmonies – much of which comes down to singer Andrea Estella, who has a breathy, longing voice that well and truly anchors the band’s music in ’80s dreampop territory. … Continue Reading

Japanese Voyeurs, London, Hoxton Bar And Kitchen

July 12 2011

“We’ve got it together now,” enthuses Steve Wilson, the hooded drummer of Japanese Voyeurs. “We can headline any show no problem.” … Continue Reading

Austra – Feel It Break

Ever since 1990 when Depeche Mode perfected brooding electro-pop on their masterpiece Violator, many a band have tried to recreate its propulsive, dark brilliance – to such an extent that the phrase ‘Goth’ has become a tag bandied about a little too freely. Not that that’s to say Dave Gahan and pals should be classed as Goths, but then again, neither should the Manics, White Lies or Lady-bloody-Gaga – all artists who have been, or whose music has been, on the receiving end of the term in recent times. … Continue Reading

Dutch Uncles – Cadenza

Hark back to August 1995 and Britpop’s version of clash of the titans: Oasis Vs Blur. Reports since have conceded that Blur might have won the battle but Oasis won the war (sales figures released in 2009 proved they were the more successful of the two). But reassess the career of both bands today and it’s clear, to this writer anyway, that Blur were always the more superior band. … Continue Reading